Cayre family office sells Garment District office building for $26M

Cayre Equities, the real estate investment firm run by Kenneth Cayre and his sons Nathan and Jack, has sold the 16-story commercial loft building at 254 West 35th Street in Manhattan’s Garment District to Brooklyn-based Joyland Management for $26.2 million. Cayre Equities had acquired the 106,000-square-foot property from an entity tied to the Tekiner family in December 2024 for $16.2 million, originally planning a self-storage conversion. The sale — representing a 62 percent gain in roughly 14 months — was likely facilitated by the New York City Council’s August 2025 approval of the Midtown South rezoning, which unlocked high-density residential development across 42 blocks of the neighborhood. Joyland Management, led by Joel Wertzberger, filed plans with the Department of Buildings in January 2026 to convert the building into a 166-unit residential project including affordable housing. Concurrently with the purchase, Joyland borrowed $27 million from Levon Capital and Dime Community Bank and executed a 99-year ground lease valued at approximately $6.8 million with Brooklyn developer Mendel Fleischman, suggesting Joyland does not plan to develop the project itself. The sale was brokered by Itanel Rahamani of Venture Capital Properties and recorded on February 5, 2026.

About Cayre Equities: The Kenneth Cayre family office

Cayre Equities is a New York City-based private real estate investment and development firm founded in 2003 by Kenneth Cayre, one of three Syrian Jewish brothers from Brooklyn — Joseph, Stanley, and Kenneth — who built their fortune across entertainment, media, and real estate. Beginning in the 1960s with duty-free retail and music distribution, the Cayre brothers co-founded Salsoul Records, a pioneering disco and dance music label; GoodTimes Entertainment, one of the largest independent video distributors in the United States; and GT Interactive, a video game publisher that distributed titles including Doom and Quake. As the family transitioned into real estate, the brothers established separate but frequently collaborating investment platforms: Joseph founded Midtown Equities in 2000, which partnered with Larry Silverstein and Lloyd Goldman on the World Trade Center lease and now manages a portfolio of over 100 properties; Joseph’s youngest son Bobby founded Aurora Capital Associates in 2001, focusing on retail in the Meatpacking District and SoHo; and Kenneth launched Cayre Equities, which specializes in retail, office, and self-storage properties — the latter operated through its Treasure Island Storage brand. Cayre Equities and its affiliates hold a diverse portfolio totaling more than 3 million square feet, with a presence in major retail corridors including Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Oak Street in Chicago, and Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

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Article Source: Bldup.com, 16.02.2026